Abstract
Situated within the global movement known as Textile Cartographies, in which over 8000 people and 70 communities have participated to date, this study explores the challenges of institutional gatekeeping, for example museums, while contesting the dominant preconception of what counts as ‘presentable’ art. The study promotes participants’ involvement in curatorial practice by employing arts-based method in a three-day rolling textile workshop through spontaneous participation in a market bazaar in Guangzhou, China. Data were collected via observation notes, photographs, participants’ verbal reflections and written or spoken narratives. The recorded data were analysed using thematic analysis through the perspective of ‘Art as Experience’ (Dewey, 1934). The study finds that: Textile Cartographies functions as a bridging method, connecting local participants with international peers and audiences, encouraging spontaneous participation, and transformative social outcomes; Extending the responsibilities of the coordinator beyond conventional facilitation towards active mediation, thereby encouraging creative processes that generate creative democracy within narrative curatorial practice by Textile Cartographies; Spontaneous creative participation can promote creative democracy through textiles by fostering community building that circumvents institutional gatekeeping, while maintaining flexible and agile curatorial decision making. The project underlines how a seemingly mundane creative act, when approached with spontaneity, openness, and reciprocity, can erode social divides, cultivate communal resilience, and transform the ordinary into a space of deepened social and material experience.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2026 Special Focus—The Future of Museum Narratives
KEYWORDS
Public Engagement, Arts-Based Method, Social Design, Narrative Curatorial Practice
